No Longer Human is narrated by a young man and tracks the course of his life. He struggles to understand human emotions and why people act the way they do. He’s very observant and puts on a facade to please the masses. To everyone else hes a perfectly normal, funny, charming guy, but on the inside he struggles with mental health and finding a reason to live.
I think this book is a great representation of mental health struggles and Osamu Dazai is a wonderful job portraying concepts like depression, apathy, and suicidal thoughts. It also conveys the setting and what it was like to live in that era very well.
To be quite honest, the book contains a lot of difficult vocabulary and complexities in the story itself that causes you to have to really think about the book to fully understand the meaning. It’s a great read and the details in every sentence give you further insight into the mind and struggles of the main character to really put yourself in his place.
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